Toshiba Satellite U925t Review (Part 2)

Keyboard and trackpad

When we first tried the U925t, we said that it had a keyboard that was larger than most slider keyboards we have seen. And that's true; an inherent issue with this form factor is that when the screen is propped up, the joint around the back occupies the space of the useful keyboard tray, which makes the keyboard area unusually tight. We still say that the U925t tablet has a better keyboard than the new MSI Slider S20, but it does not express much. The layout here still feels cramped compared to the XPS 12, or any other ultraportable with fully usable keyboard tray.

In spite of somewhat shallow keys, they have a soft surface that feels good under the fingertips.

All in all, we were able to type the main part of this review on it, but made ​​a lot of spelling mistakes along the way. Unfortunately, the propped-up screen took up too much space, it is due to with a little more space this would likely be a great typing experience. In spite of somewhat shallow keys, they have a soft surface that feels good under the fingertips, and we like the way the keyboard produces quite little sound, even when you are typing fast. The soft background lighting is also a good point. (You can disable it at any time by pressing Fn-Z).

When the screen is propped up, the joint around the back occupies the space of the useful keyboard tray, which makes the keyboard area unusually tight.

If you think the keyboard is cramped, imagine how small the touchpad is. However, it is wide; just is not very high. Mainly it is a problem when you're trying to click the preset- touch button (which you can use if you're in File Explorer or any other desktop applications requiring accuracy). In that scenario, it's hard to fit both your thumb and index finger on the trackpad at the same time; your index finger may sweep over the top of the touchpad, and type exactly the spacebar.

Fortunately, the touchpad is large enough so that you are able to comfortably roll two fingers, which works smoothly on this device. We are sure you will not need the touchpad for pinch-to-zoom because as you know, you can only use the touch screen for that.

Screen and sound

In addition to the protection of the Gorilla Glass, the 12.5-inch screen provides some good viewing angles through IPS technology. Pursuant to the fact that this is not the type of computer you can gather around with your friends, you may appreciate the best viewing angles when using the PC in your lap. Using it this way, we had quite a lot of leeway when we were adjusting the screen. In terms of 1,366x768 resolutions, it's pretty standard between Windows computers, especially the models with small screens. It's completely adequate for watching movies and working, but it is worth taking notice that there are more and more 1080p PCs, including the Dell XPS 12 and the Acer Aspire S7, a 13-inch Ultrabook with a touch screen. Indeed, we happened to have both of these computers, and as you might guess, their screens look more vivid, and the remarkable difference shows in the desktop and in the Modern UI of Microsoft.

The 12.5-inch Gorilla Glass screen provides some good viewing angles through IPS technology.

The U925t’s two speakers are placed on the underside of the device, just below the place of laying the palm. As you may have thought, based on the size of the laptop and the location of the speakers, the sound never becomes very loud, even at the maximum settings. Like many other laptops, the sound is certainly tiny; with cut-off bass notes. The special low tones sound was heard as it was distorted at maximum volume, so you may want to keep the volume at a more moderate setting, even if it means experiencing the softer sound.

The U925t’s two speakers are placed on the underside of the device, just below the place of laying the palm.

Performance and battery life

Toshiba Satellite U925t (Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz, Intel HD 4000)

·         PCMark7: 4,381              

·         3DMark06: 4,210 

·         3DMark11: E989 / P563  

·         ATTO (top disk speeds): 521MB/s (reads); 265 MB/s (writes)

Dell XPS 12 (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000)

·         PCMark7: 4,673              

·         3DMark06: 4,520 

·         3DMark11: N/A    

·         ATTO (top disk speeds): 516 MB/s (reads); 263 MB/s (writes)

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000)

·         PCMark7: 4,422              

·         3DMark06: 4,415 

·         3DMark11: E917 / P572  

·         ATTO (top disk speeds): 278MB/s (reads); 263 MB/s (writes)

Acer Aspire S7 (2.4GHz Core i7-3517U, Intel HD 4000)

·         PCMark7: 5,011              

·         3DMark06: 4,918 

·         3DMark11: E1035 / P620 / X208

·         ATTO (top disk speeds):  934 MB/s (reads); 686 MB/s (writes)

This may be the easiest performance comparisons we ever had. Every Ultrabook is listed in the table above running Windows 8, and three of them have the same Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor. All have the Intel’s latest integrated graphics solution, the HD 4000 chipset. The benchmark scores in PCMark7, 3DMark06 and 3DMark11 are equal. One exception is the Acer Aspire S7 that we checked with a Core i7 CPU and RAID 0 SSD setting. Therefore, there are not many signs to show that the U925t is either faster or slower than the rivals. Its highest drive speeds measured by ATTO, were very close to what we had with the XPS 12. Its read speeds were remarkably faster than the speeds of Yoga 13 (512MB/s vs. 278MB/s), but that appears to be more related to the Yoga, because the XPS 12 also got read speeds in the range of 500MB/s.

In actual use, the U925t accelerates rapidly: 8 seconds to the login screen, and then another 2 seconds to load the Start screen. It is faster than the XPS 12, which takes 12 seconds to boot up. We found specific applications of Windows 8, for instance, Windows Store loaded on slowly, but we did not notice any delay when switching through open apps and browser tabs. If there is anything, the biggest error was the fan noise: the machine became terribly loud, especially when running games. At one point, the sound coming from the fans was so loud that we worried that we were disturbing the others in the office. Of course, it is a subjective measure. So, this is a more practical question: Will that noise likely to disturb you while you are trying to focus on?

When it comes to check the battery life on the Windows 8 laptop, we are in the midst of a disappointing state: the U925t extended a little more than five hours during our standard battery test, including looping video with WiFi on and the brightness fixed at 65 percent. Although this test was rather serious, we found that some of the non-touch-enabled Ivy Bridge Ultrabooks lasted up to 6 hours, if not 7. And the best results we've seen so far from a touch-screen Windows 8 Ultrabook is the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, which lasted 5 hours and 32 minutes in the same test. The Dell XPS 12 ran 5 hours and 30 minutes. According to these standards, the U925t’s battery life is not much for us to be surprised, but it still is not great.